He arched his head back and howled, not hearing me, not understanding. I walked closer but still out of reach, so I could try and make him listen.
“Lothar,” I snapped, louder. “Listen to me.” He stopped swiping his clawed hands at me and stilled. His red eyes burned, predatory and utterly intent. “That’s it. Listen to my voice. Lothar needs to come back, you need to let him come back.”
His eyes flickered to gold, just for a split second, before it was gone again.
“I know you’re fighting, Loth, don’t stop, okay? I need you here. I need you to come bac?—”
The metallic slide of a lock being opened, froze me in place. My gaze sliced to the door just as it swung open.
Oh fuck.
The beast didn’t hesitate, he burst through, and came straight for me, eating up the space between us, and slammed me against the wall with so much force, I was surprised he didn’t crack my ribs. I gasped for breath and reached up, grabbing his face, holding his wild, red stare. “Lothar,” I yelled. “Come back, right the fuck now!”
There was another flash of gold, but again, only for a split second.
He dragged his nose along my naked shoulder, and a deep rumbling sound vibrated from him. “My female. Mine,” he said in a distorted and garbled voice, then he roared in my face.
Fucking hell.
My heart was pounding a furious beat as he scented me again, then nipped at my shoulder and licked my skin. His head jerked back, his gaze locked on one of the deep cuts Sera had made in my upper arm, and he snarled at it, as if he could intimidate it into vanishing. He licked the wound. “Heal you,” he said roughly and licked me again, his instincts to take care of me distracting him.
Okay, maybe things would be okay? If I could keep him focused on my wounds while I worked out what to do next— His hard cock prodded at my tightly clenched thighs.
Fuck.
“Lothar?”
He lifted his head with a snarl, and his eyes flashed gold. “Roxy,” he snarled, confusion slipping through, fear as well, then the gold was gone again. “Mate,” he said next, his voice back to the beast. “Claim,” he said and ground his hard cock against my stomach.
His head jerked back suddenly, his mouth opening as his jaw extended into its hound’s snout, then retracted and went back to normal. His fangs slid back in, then thrust back out. Lothar was right there, right below the surface, and he was fighting with everything he had, but the beast was strong—and right now, that part of him, the part that knew who I was and had been cruelly suppressed for so very long, was winning.
I was sure Lothar could hear me though.
“Whatever happens,” I said, gripping the sides of his face and making him look me in the eyes, “it’s okay. I’ll be okay. This is not your fault, none of this is your fault.”
Even as I tried to reassure him, I called for Lucifer in my mind, begging him to come, to stop this.
Lothar’s eyes flashed gold again, and he pulled away with an agonized cry and dropped to his knees. He tilted his head back and looked up at me. “Roxy?” He shook his head, confusion, realization, betrayal, heartbreak, it all flashed across his face, and gods, I felt it, it was like everything he was experiencing in that moment had been shot directly through my chest.
“Lothar, I’m here. Stay with me.”
He gripped his head with a roar, but when he looked back up, he was gone. The beast shot back to his feet and hauled me up against him, dragging my legs around his waist. I didn’t fight him, I would never let him think he forced this on me. His beast was driven by the instinct to claim his mate. I was his mate, his female, kept from him for far too long.
A tear slid down my cheek as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “It’s okay,” I said again. “You can do it. You can claim me.” The alternative was fighting him, and with him in this state, there was a good chance I’d lose. The result of that would be devastating. I would not do that to Lothar.
He shoved his face against my neck with a growl. “Kitten,” he rasped, Lothar breaking through again. “I’m…I’m sorry.” Then he snarled again.
When he lifted his head, his eyes were flashing red, then gold, not holding one color while the beast and hound inwardly battled it out. Lothar was terrified, he had to be so scared of what was happening, at what he couldn’t stop from happening.
Pain washed through me when I realized Lucifer wasn’t going to stop this. Gods, that hurt, so fucking badly. Maybe there was a reason, some greater good right then. But I didn’t care about the greater good. I only cared about Lothar and what this would do to him.
“It’s okay. I’m yours,” I choked out again, giving him the permission he needed. “I’m yours to take. Claim me, claim your mate.”
His chest vibrated against mine as the thick head of his cock prodded between my thighs. I held on tighter, bracing as he pressed me against the wall with force—then slammed inside me.
I cried out at the intrusion. Lothar was huge everywhere, and if I were anyone else, I would have been torn in two. But I was Hell-born, and most importantly, I was made for him. I clung on tight as he thrust wildly into me, as if he had no control at all, had no choice but to claim me like the animal he was right then. He snarled while he licked and nipped at my throat, my shoulder, and I did the only thing I could, I yielded in every way possible, and held on to him, choking down my gasps and cries of pain, and doing my best to reassure him the only way I knew how.
Lothar would never hurt me. He’d never force himself on me, and I refused to let Seraphina win, for her to hurt us both this way. This wasn’t his fault, it was Sera’s, and that bitch was going to pay.
